The photo this week covers familiar ground. This is the end of track at Brookville taken several years ago. The locomotive is on one of the leads to the enginehouse. The hopper car in the center of the shot is on the main, which feeds directly to the Owens Corning plant behind. I love this scene and return to it often to see what is at the plant in the way of rolling stock. The highway overpass makes a convenient spot for pictures. Access to the plant is off limits of course, but there are plenty of places to get photos without trespassing. Once again, I had permission to be where I was standing for this shot, something I can’t recommend enough. Life is too short to do stupid things.

Brookville yardThe texture of the track is just great in the scene and it’s one of the things that attracted me to the line. In fact, it’s the main thing that drew me in. There is a lesson here about simplicity in layout design. You don’t need endless scale miles of track to have fun with operations. This area would make a fine layout all by itself with a modest amount of staging track. What else do you see?

Regards,

Mike

 

 

2 Comments

  1. Matt

    Mike,

    I see some short ties right in front of where you are standing. Looks like the plate is at the end of the tie. I see an unused track next to the one you are standing. Something I rarely see folks model a track not used (or at least ot used enough to “knock the rust of the head”). Like the oil streak(s) down the middle of the track as well. Interesting pattern.

    Matt

  2. mike

    Hi Matt,

    Yes, The ties for this turnout are rough, as is all the trackage in the area. The track you call unused is indeed in use. It’s part of a runaround and is used to store cars off spot for the plant. I was just down there last week and things looked busy (a good sign).

    The railroad will spot cars anywhere. Just south of town a handful of covered hoppers was sitting on the mainline. Why they left them there I don’t know, but there had to be a reason I’m certain. Since this is the only industry to speak of that is served on this line, leaving cars in unusual places isn’t that big a deal. It also opens up operational possibilities that traditional model railroad thinking would never consider. In O scale, where every inch is important to a layout, this is something to consider carefully. More O scale layouts might get built if people didn’t get so locked into conventional thinking.

    Regards,
    Mike